


There's No Need For CLAUStrophobia

by NiuNiu



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Cute Ending, Dialogue Heavy, Entrapdak, F/M, Gift Exchange, Gift Fic, Humor, Misunderstandings, No Plot/Plotless, Not Beta Read, One Shot, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 20:34:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21921508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiuNiu/pseuds/NiuNiu
Summary: Hordak's trap setting backfires and traps him and Entrapta into his private elevator. But why did he booby trap the place anyway? And what bothers Entrapta?
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 152





	There's No Need For CLAUStrophobia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RenkonNairu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenkonNairu/gifts).



> I really, really appreciate comments so can you leave me a comment? ABSOLUTELY!  
> Does it come off as odd, creepy or "omg I dunno what to say this is lame"? NEVERRRRRRRR  
> All comments are appreciated! Even "dföoidpgsodgdf I read it thanks" is awesome to get.
> 
> \--------------------  
> Entrapdak Secret Santa 2019 gift fic to emperorsfoot/RenkonNairu.  
> Happy Holidays!

“Hordak! I need you to come with me to an upper level. The calculations I made look somehow odd, but I have been staring at them for so long I need a fresh pair of eyes to see what’s the issue.”

Hordak lifted his gaze up from the new transmitter model he had been working on since the early morning to see Entrapta hanging upside down from an air ventilation pipe just next to his head. It was nothing new that she barked in and interrupted his work, but for Hordak, it was never an issue. Entrapta never bothered him with non-sense stuff like Horde staff did, but if she wanted your attention and help, there was always a solid, reasonable reason for it.

“Very well.” Hordak simply said, placing his work on the table. He straightened his back and turned to face Entrapta. “To which level?”

“I can take us there if we take the elevator,” Entrapta said dropping down on the floor with the help of her outstretched hair. She let them to an elevator – Hordak allowing her to push the door button, he knew just how much Entrapta liked pushing buttons – and then followed her inside when the doors opened with a bright jingle. Something Entrapta had installed because she didn’t only like tiny food but tiny sounds, too.

“Let’s go!” Entrapta declared loudly and ushered Hordak to press the button number 5 down. After all, it would have been rude of her to press and push all the buttons during this trip. Hordak needed some fun, too.

The elevator whirred and murmured, jerking softly into movement.

“I take that the formula we spoke about yesterday is the problem?” Hordak inquired. Entrapta crossed her arms over her chest and pouted her lips.

“It’s a far more challenging alone than I thought. The denominator keeps---"

The elevator suddenly halted after floor 3’s sign, and then jerked down with a loud metallic screech, taking both Hordak and Entrapta by surprise. Entrapta fell down on her bottom and tried to get up with the help of Hordak’s outstretched arm, only for the elevator to jerk again – this time upwards - sending her tiny body to a direct collision with Hordak’s chest. He protected Entrapta from falling on her knees with a firm hold on her upper arms.

“What is this?” Entrapta gasped, as the elevator stopped completely. Its light blinked ominously above them.

“Looks like—” Hordak began, still holding Entrapta against him, when the light died out. A few odd mechanical sounds echoed from the sides of the elevator. A small emergency light lit up, illuminating the elevator with very dim cold white light.

“----like I forgot a trap”, he finished.

Entrapta took a look at Hordak’s face, backing away from his hold.

“A trap? I didn’t know we had booby traps here.”

Hordak’s ears drooped for a second. He turned around and headed to elevator’s button panel, opening it with a short yank.

“I had the place trapped by my own hands, alone, without telling anyone,” he murmured, tinkering with wires inside. “Don’t worry. It takes about an hour for the elevator to move again after I’m done with wiring it. That’s safer and I don’t want to damage Fright Zone’s properties by breaking this elevator down. Imp might have fitted out from via the ceiling port to fly to the main controls to get the elevator moving again but…”

Entrapta walked next to Hordak, offering him different working tools she pulled out from the depths of her hair. She inspected Hordak with a concerned look in her eyes.

“You set traps alone? Is it something classified? Are you in danger?” she asked

Hordak grunted deeply.

“We all are.”

Entrapta gasped, eyes widening in a second.

“Eh! Is it the Princess Alliance?! Your brothers?! A mutated evil plant-animal hybrid from the Whispering Woods?! If it is the hybrid, please let me catch it with you! I want to study it!” she babbled.

Hordak handed a screwdriver back to Entrapta and she switched it to a smaller one. So small that it would have fitted into her hands better than into his.

“It’s that sneaking criminal, and I plan to catch him in action. That some sort of a magical creature you told about.”

“Eh, I don’t remember anything like that…” Entrapta scratched her head both with her free hand and the free tip of her long pigtail.

“The one who sneaks in people’s houses and bases. The spying wrench! I will not let him to take any of Horde’s secrets with him. Anyone, who steals information from me about me, my past, my projects, will be severely punished with most horrible things they can ever imagine,” Hordak sneered, seemingly delighted by his own mental images of whatever horrors he would inflict on the trespasser.

A light of excitement lit up in Entrapta’s eyes and she took a sharp inhale.

“Oooh, if you are planning on making torture devices, I’d be glad to help you out! I’ve wanted to try out what kind of robotic technology an Etherian body can take until it breaks! …But, didn’t you say he was a magical creature? Does it have an Etherian body?”

Hordak took a surprised look at Entrapta, closing the button panel.

“Well, that’s what you told to Imp. I overheard it the other day.”

Entrapta crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head in a confusion, brows knitting together.

“I’m sorry, I can’t remember. When was it?”

“Some weeks ago. Can’t remember what you called him. The magical fat red creature which spies on Etherian folk and breaks in their houses. He’s a danger for the Horde if he gets in here. His magical ability allows him to grand wishes so when I catch him, we can dissect him and see where he gets his power!” Hordak was clearly excited of his evil plan.

“Ah!” Entrapta yelled, eyes widening. “You mean Santa Claus?!”

“Yes?” Hordak replied with a guess. He honestly didn’t remember what Entrapta had called the mysterious creature.

She sighed, back pressing against the wall as she let her body slide on the floor. “Oh, Hordak. Santa Claus is a story we tell for kids. It’s a way to keep them nice and obedient over the course of one year and if they are nice, their parents and family members get them presents and say they are from Santa.” She kept sighing.

Hordak’s face dropped, together with his pointy ears.

“A lie? Treachery? How’s that a tradition in Etheria?” his voice almost cracked with a disappointment which reflected outwards from his long face.

Entrapda waved her hand in the air nonchalantly.

“Trust me, kids love it. They always love good stories. I did, too, when I was little and until I learned the harsh truth of Santa Claus.” She let her hand drop into her lap. “I was telling about Santa Claus to Imp because I wanted to surprise him with a present which just magically appears to him. I told the same story for Emily and boy, was she excited! There’s something mystical when you know you’re going to get a present from this benevolent being at the end of the year.”

Slowly Hordak sat next to Entrapta, his eyes fixated on her.

“Benevolent? A blackmailer, that’s what he is,” he snorted.

“Now, now, Hordak, Santa Claus is not a blackmailer,” Entrapta scolded him. “He is a judge! If you are kind, you get a present. If you are a little jerk, he gives you nothing.”

Hordak’s lips pressed together and he fell into a short silence.

“….Seems fair enough.”

“Sorry, you made all the booby traps in vain. I hope you didn’t work too hard and too long on the traps… Oh but well, at least we’re well protected against trespassers now, eh?” Entrapta tried to cheer Hordak up.

Hordak said nothing. Just pulled his legs up to his chin and looked miffed - and more or less disappointed. Entrapta patted his thigh.

“…But, it would be nice if there was someone like that who could grand you your wishes. Think about it! You could ask anything! Unlimited knowledge, unlimited recourses for research, health, money, travels across the galaxies, time traveling, hundreds of portals leading to different corners of the known and unknown universe… Anything!” she sighed dreamily. “And to get that all just by being nice. I have been nice, haven’t I?”

Hordak’s head turned to Entrapta.

“Yes, very. You have done excellent job with our projects. You treat Imp well, too,” he complimented her.

“And in my books, you have been kind, too. Sure, you yell at your subordinates and kinda scare them, but only if they deserve it. Haha, in a way, I guess you’re the Santa!” Entrapta elbowed Hordak to his side playfully, grinning at her own joke.

Hordak snorted in amusement to Entrapta’s comment but didn’t shoot it down. He turned his head forward, absently staring in front of him.

“What would you wish if you could wish anything from Santa?” Entrapta asked, sliding herself closer to Hordak, almost gluing her short body against his side. Her eyes were fixated on his face as she was curiously waiting for an answer.

Hordak’s initial hum was followed by a sharp hiss.

“…To be worthy,” he said.

Entrapta groaned and shook his upper arm with both hands.

“No, Hordak!” she whined with eyes closed tightly. “You are already worthy! Think big! BIG! You can get anything you ever dream of and want from Santa!”

Hordak’s ears perked up. He looked like he had realized something.

“I…. I could ask Santa to give me power to conquer and rule Etheria?” he murmured unsurely, his chin rising up from his knees.

“See! Now you are thinking big!” Entrapta rejoiced.

“Interesting. I have to think about my wish,” he said. “And you?” Hordak’s head turned to Entrapta. “What would you want?”

“Me?” Entrapta asked, sinking lower into a sloughed position. Her lips pressed together in a deep thought as she hummed and tilted her head from side to side, thinking. “Well… There’s something I’d want but… It’s kind of a silly one,” she began after a while of head tilting. “I mean, sure, I’d want to get all the knowledge of the world – or that’s what I thought – but then I thought ‘Entrapta. If you get all the knowledge in the world, there’s nothing to be learned or discovered after that anymore.’ How boring a life like that would be? No scientific breakthroughs, no new information, no new discoveries, no theories to be proven or shoot down… Nothing. Just… knowledge. Unlimited knowledge. How boring.”

“Go on,” Hordak urged her.

“Please promise you won’t laugh?” Entrapta whirled her fingers around one another, getting a firm, very officially looking military nod from Hordak. “I… I wish I was marked. Like the rest of the Etherians are.”

Hordak’s head tilted to left.

“Hmm, I did see your medical report after you joined us. It did say ‘Unmarked’. I didn’t pay attention to it as your report was otherwise fine. Perhaps I shouldn’t have overlooked it?” he murmured but Entrapta disagreed with him.

“No, no, it’s fine! It’s fine. It doesn’t affect me or my performance in any way! It just… makes me a defect…” Entrapta’s voice got quieter the longer she spoke. She turned away from Hordak, and pulled her knees up to her chin, hugging her legs. Her head pressed nose deep between knees.

Hordak’s legs straightened in front of him

“You are not a defect!” he said sternly. “You are… e-enough,” he added with a small stutter.

“Aaw, that’s sweet from you, but unlike you, I am a defect. I… I have not met anyone else who is unmarked…” Entrapta sounded sad.

Hordak’s head pressed closer to Entrapta’s face.

“What do you mean?” he asked right above her head, so very close from her.

“Just what I said,” she circled the subject. She gave a quick upward glance at Hordak. “In Etheria, everyone is born marked. The mark can be anything from a tiny spot to a bigger sigil type of a sign, but it is easy to spot as they differ from moles and other birthmarks,” Entrapta explained, taking another quick glance at Hordak.

Hordak hummed.

“Hmm, I have seen some Horde soldiers with marks on their faces, necks, palms and fingers. I never paid any attention to those. What’s their function?”

Entrapta sighed, leaning backwards; her head bumping against the elevator’s wall.

“They are guide marks to find your people. Both partners and friends. There are multiple combinations for the mark matches. Kind of like… finding your own tribe?” she gestured the air with her hands vaguely. “Something like that.”

Hordak listened to Entrapta quietly.

“…And you are missing this mark?”

“Yeah, big time!” she laughed, but it came out a lot weaker than she had anticipated. “In Etherian standards that means that I don’t belong here, you know? That I don’t get to have friends or a partner or anything like that, because for what I know, I’m the only unmarked one in the whole Etheria.” Her lips pursed together, eyes getting forlorn. “I mean, I’m fine being alone. I’m used to that. I have never had anyone besides my parents and my servants. My servants stayed with me even when we weren’t marked for one another – they were marked to my parents, not to me – so they are kind of like my friends but… not friends at the same time. It’s… kind of…well… They were just serving me and treating me nicely because of the contract they had with my parents.”

“All life in all galaxies is based on interaction with others,” Hordak cut in when he noticed just how gloomy Entrapta’s eyes had gotten. “I suspect Etheria works the same way; people yearn for each other’s company. The marks can’t be that influential, though. If they had lots of significance, Horde wouldn’t be able to operate. Putting together people with wrong markings would let to chaos and disorder based on what you have just told me.”

“It’s not that simple, Hordak,” Entrapta said. “Different marks can work together and be around one another but the true loyalty is achieved when the marks match. Like, when you put together a team A and B and one of them doesn’t function properly. They argue, can’t follow orders, mess things up. That’s because there’s imbalance between marks. Even one or two wrong marks in a group can cause problems.”

Hordak took suddenly a hold of Entrapta’s hand, pulling it closer to his face.

“But wouldn’t a lack of a mark make you superior to others, then?” he muttered, inspecting and turning her palm in his hold slowly from side to side, tracking her palms lines with his fingertips. “Not being affected by any marks, by any mismatching combinations, ever in your life. No one to control you, to rub you the wrong way just by existing. Free from all chains and restrictions.” He turned to look at Entrapta, her eyes keenly staring back at him. “If that isn’t perfection, I don’t know what is.”

“Aaw, shucks, Hordak, you are getting really good with your pep talks,” Entrapta sniffed. Oddly enough, Hordak didn’t blush this time.

“Maybe you really do not belong here. With your intelligence, your talent, it would be easy to conquer planets, galaxies. Investigate them, create new scientific breakthroughs. Create portals from another end of the universe to the other. Built spaceships, bent the laws of the universe. Perhaps…” Hordak fall into a silence for a second, thinking. “Perhaps you were meant to travel the galaxies instead of getting stuck here on Etheria. Perhaps your… friends, your group, is somewhere else. Does it have to be Etherian?”

“I… I don’t know but your theory of it not needing to be an Etherian connect has a point,” Entrapta whispered, entwining her small fingers with Hordak’s. “Right now, I’m coming very well along with an alien from another planet.”

“Right,” Hordak cleared his throat, blushing. “Besides,” he swallowed, “If it makes you feel better, I’m not marked either. Imp’s not marked and for what I know, Emily doesn’t have any marks on her, does she?”

It looked like a big light pulp switched on in Entrapta’s head. Her eyes widened, lips parting to a small gasp.

“You are right!” she breathed out, her body jerking up from the sloughed position. “We’re unmarked, all of us!”

Hordak smiled at Entrapta, waving their joined hands in the air.

“The Unmarked Group of Four Failures”, he stated, and it was perhaps the first time ever Hordak had let out a joke from his mouth.

“I was planning on gluing a sticker on Emily, but she refused but I don’t think stickers can be counted as markings,” Entrapta muttered, getting a short, amused chuckle from Hordak. She looked at invisible spot in front of her

“…Hordak, now that I think of it, think this all,” Entrapta began and her hand squeezed tighter around Hordak’s. “Perhaps I was meant to come here. To the Fright Zone and meet you. Perhaps…” she turned to Hordak, cheeks slightly rosy, “I was meant to meet you. Another one without a mark, like me. Hordak. My lab partner.”

Hordak blushed furiously and quickly turned his head away to hide his face from Entrapta, ears drooping. He didn’t, however, let go of her hand.

“And Hordak, Hordak!” Entrapta continued, very, very excited now. “The portal brought you here! Suddenly, just like that!” She got on her knees and peeked to take a look at Hordak’s blushing face. “Hordak! This was meant to be! A scientific theory of our destined encounter which I have all the evidence to! How fascinating! How… how…” she stopped so suddenly, her words trailing off so quickly from the excited babble that Hordak had to turn to check if she was alright.

“Entrapta?”

“How nice,” she sighed with a wide smile spreading on her happy looking face. Her eyes beamed. “How truly nice. We’re meant to be!”

She let go of Hordak’s hand and curled on the floor on her side, head in Hordak’s slap all to his surprise. She closed her eyes, sighing.

“Now you’ll never get rid of me, Hordak”, she announced and snuggled herself into a more comfortable position, like Imp when it sought a warm lap to curl into.

Hordak said nothing but he never needed to. Just placed his hand on top of happy Entrapta’s head and gave her a small smile.


End file.
